Saturday, 28 April 2018

Franchise Familiariser: BattleTech

This is the year of BattleTech.
A brand-new strategy video game just came out (and is excellent), another video
game is due at the end of the year and both the miniatures wargame and the
roleplaying game are getting refreshed this year. There’s more interest in the
franchise than there has been in maybe a decade, but what to do if you’re
intrigued but have no idea what it’s all about? Time for a Franchise
Familiariser course!

The second edition of BattleTech and the first to use that name, released in 1985.

The Basics

BattleTech (and
its related brand, MechWarrior) –
not be confused with Robotech – is a
franchise that merges elements of space opera, military science fiction,
fantasy and Japanese manga and anime. It was originally created as a tabletop
wargame, followed by a pen-and-paper RPG, but gained its greatest exposure
through video games, a lengthy series of novels and a short-run animated series
which ran for half a season in 1994.

BattleTech was
created by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babock III for FASA Corporation in 1984
as a tabletop wargame. The original idea had been to create a wargame using
large, human-piloted robots known as BattleMechs or ‘mechs. Originally called BattleDroids, the game had to change
its name after a few months due to a copyright claim by Lucasfilm (who claimed
that they had copyrighted “droids” as part of their Star Wars franchise). A companion tabletop roleplaying game, MechWarrior, was published in 1986. The
first BattleTech video games, The Crescent Hawk’s Inception and The Crescent Hawk’s Revenge, were
released in 1988 and 1990 respectively.

The franchise received a significant boost in popularity,
however, through the MechWarrior
video game series. The original MechWarrior
(1989) was well-received but it was MechWarrior
2 (1995) that took the series to new heights. Released at exactly the right
moment to capitalise on 3D graphics cards and more powerful PCs, the game was a
huge success. It was followed by MechWarrior
2: Mercenaries (1996), MechWarrior 3
(1999), MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (2000)
and MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries
(2002).

In 2001 FASA almost went bust and sold the BattleTech and MechWarrior properties to WizKids. In 2003 WizKids was bought by
Topps but continued to release new material under the WizKids name. They have
also provided companies such as FanPro and Catalyst Games with licences. Since
2007, Catalyst Game Labs has been releasing new versions of the classic wargame
and the roleplaying game, whilst Piranha Studios and Harebrained Schemes have
released new video games.

2018 has been dubbed the “year of BattleTech”, with two new video games (BattleTech from Harebrained and MechWarrior
5 from Piranha) and a refreshed version of the wargame and roleplaying game
on the way from Catalyst.

MUCH MORE AFTER THE JUMP

The video game MechWarrior 2 was a massive success in 1995, expanding the BattleTech universe to a new legion of fans.

The Canon

The BattleTech
canon consists of the background “fluff” or “lore” from the various editions of
the wargame, the background material to the video games and the story told
across 116 novels. Despite changing owners and creative teams several times
across thirty-four years, the BattleTech
lore has remained remarkably consistent and largely free of retcons or changes,
the few that have taken place being driven more by rights issues over the
original mecha designs than creative problems.

Wargames and
Roleplaying Games

BattleDroids
(1984)

BattleTech (1985)

MechWarrior (1986)

BattleTech: The
Succession Wars (1987)

MechWarrior: The Dark
Age (2002)

BattleTech: A Time of
War (2010)

BattleTech: A Game of
Armoured Combat (2018)

Video Games

BattleTech: The
Crescent Hawk’s Inception (1988)

MechWarrior (1989)

BattleTech: The
Crescent Hawk’s Revenge (1990)

MechWarrior SNES
(1993)

MechWarrior 3050
(1994)

MechWarrior 2: 31st
Century Combat (1995)

MechWarrior 2: Ghost
Bear’s Legacy (1995)

MechWarrior 2:
Mercenaries (1996)

MechCommander
(1998)

MechCommander:
Desperate Measures (1999)

MechWarrior 3
(1999)

MechWarrior 3:
Pirate’s Moon (1999)

MechWarrior 4:
Vengeance (2000)

MechWarrior 4: Black
Knight (2001)

MechCommander 2
(2001)

MechWarrior 4:
Mercenaries (2002)

MechAssault (2002)

MechAssault 2: Lone
Wolf (2004)

MechAssault: Phantom
War (2006)

MechWarrior Online
(2013)

MechWarrior: Tactical
Command (2013)

BattleTech (2018)

MechWarrior 5:
Mercenaries (2018)

Michael A. Stackpole is the best-known BattleTech author. His work on BattleTech led him to working in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, where the penned the well-receivd X-Wing and Corran Horn novels.

BattleTech is set
in an alternate history to our own, with the point of divergence being the
collapse of the Soviet Union; in the BattleTech
timeline the Soviet Union did not collapse until 2011, resulting in a
bloody civil war. Outside forces intervened to end the war and secure the
USSR’s nuclear arsenal by 2014, preventing a nuclear exchange.

In 2020 humanity developed workable fusion power, solving
the world’s energy and pollution issues rapidly. By the end of the century
humanity had established colonies on Mars and numerous moons across the Solar
system.

In 2107 mankind developed the Jump Drive, capable of making
faster-than-light (FTL) jumps to other star systems. In 2116 the first
extrasolar colony was established at Tau Ceti. By 2235 some 600 extrasolar
colonies had been founded, resulting in the first human diaspora from the
overpopulated homeworld.

In 2242 Earth’s government, a descendant of the United
Nations now called the Terran Alliance, set a demarcation zone of 30
light-years from Sol. All worlds within this sphere were claimed by Earth,
whilst colonies outside the zone were granted independence. Six Great Houses,
evolutions of corporations, sovereign governments and wealthy families into
dynastic organisations, took control of the region beyond the demarcation line:
Houses Davion, Cameron, Kurita, Liao, Marik and Steiner. This was followed in
2315 by the overthrow of Earth’s democratic government by the military dictator
James McKenna.

In 2412 the planet Tintavel was devastated by weapons of
mass destruction, with over 300,000 deaths. In the wake of this catastrophe the
Great Houses and Earth – now usually called Terra – signed the Ares Convention,
both enshrining ritualised warfare as a means of solving disagreements but also
banning the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. New weapons were
instead developed, culminating in the creation in 2439 of the Mackie, the first BattleMech. A
building-sized robotic exoskeleton, the BattleMech combined the abilities of a
naval battleship and tank in a single unit, with a bipedal structure allowing
it to operate in all terrain types. In 2455 House Steiner stole the plans to
the BattleMech, resulting in ‘mech technology spreading among the Great Houses.

With the human powers tiring of war, in 2571 the Star League
was founded. Consisting of Earth and all of the Great Houses, whose combined
territory was now known as the Inner Sphere, and many dozens of small powers
beyond, in the Periphery, the Star League became the dominant governing body of
humanity, dedicated to peace. Several minor powers rebelled against the Star
League and attempted to undermine it, resulting in the Reunification War of
2577-97, which ended with the surrender of the Taurian Concordant.

The Star League became more powerful and technologically advanced.
In 2630 the first hyperpulse signal was sent, linking all the worlds of
humanity together through FTL communications. Despite this prolonged period of
peace, humanity maintained their weapons of war and built new ones: BattleMech
fighting tournaments became huge draws on hyperpulse entertainment, resulting
in the construction of ever-more-elaborate ‘mechs.

In 2766, First Lord of the Star League Richard Cameron was
killed and his position usurped by Stefan Amaris, President of the Rim Worlds
Republic. The Star League Defence Force (SLDF) refused to recognise the
usurper’s claim and, commanded by General Alexander Kerensky, fought its way to
Terra and unseated the usurper. In the war ended in 2780, but the conflict had
been devastating, wiping out almost three-quarters of the SLDF. With no central
military to keep the worlds in line and maintain the peace, various Star League
member worlds began breaking away.

Seeing the collapse of the Star League was imminent,
Kerensky and his closest advisors and allies left for deep space, taking with
them over six million people in Operation Exodus. They headed out beyond the
Periphery, with the League collapsing behind them. Shortly after this, the Star
League’s former Ministry of Communications broke away to become an independent
super-corporation, ComStar. ComStar seized control of the hyperpulse network
and the banking system, allowing the various worlds to continue talking and
trading with one another, whilst also ensuring their own survival.

The collapse of the Star League led to the First Successon
War (2786-2821) and Second Succession War (2830-2864). During these conflicts
the Great Houses and their nation-states reasserted themselves: House Kurita’s
Draconis Combine, House Davion’s Federated Suns, House Liao’s Capellan
Confederation, House Marik’s Free World League and House Steiner’s Lyran
Commonwealth. The Great Houses fought one another, sometimes breaking the ban
on the use of weapons of mass destruction. These conflicts were devastating,
killing millions and undermining the massive economic foundations of the former
Star League which allowed the building of BattleMechs on a vast scale. As more
timed passed, the economic cost of building ‘mechs became ruinous, forcing the
various powers to horde their supply ever more jealously. Some scientists made
strides in finding new ways of building new ‘mechs, but they were assassinated
during Operation Holy Shroud by ComStar, who believed that they alone should
hold these secrets.

In 2866 the Third Succession War began. This conflict raged
for a massive 159 years. However, the conflict was not really one single,
massive military war, instead consisting of a complex series of interlocking
smaller wars that gradually petered out over time and was finally declared over
in 3025 AD. The original BattleTech
tabletop game and many of the novels and video games are set during this era,
which is also called the “Classic BattleTech”
period.

In 3028 a cache of Star League-era knowledge was discovered
on the planet Helm. Despite ComTech’s best efforts, the cache was retrieved and
disseminated to the Great Houses, allowing the worlds to begin rebooting their
technological and scientific development.

In 3028 House Davion and House Steiner joined forces by
marriage, uniting the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth as the Federated
Commonwealth. The two houses then immediately invaded House Liao’s Capellan
Confederation, triggering the Fourth Succession War. Much shorter than the
previous wars, the two-year conflict saw Capella lose a lot of territory to the
two other powers, but the conflict was unsuccessful in completely overrunning
its territory. Despite great military successes, House Steiner was unable to
completely consolidate its holdings and in 3034 lost several systems to a
secessionist movement, which formed the Free Rasalhague Republic.

Fifteen years later the galaxy was shaken by a massive
invasion of new, advanced ‘mechs. It was revealed that after leaving the
Periphery almost 300 years earlier, the SLDF had fallen into internal
squabbling and its original plan, to establish a colony of the Star League far
beyond explored space, had faltered. Alexander Kerensy’s son, Nicholas, instead
founded a society based on ritualised combat, honour and religion. This society
divided into seventeen groupings known as the Clans. The Clans ultimately
decided that their religious imperative was an invasion of the Inner Sphere and
the reclamation of Eden, which they identified as being located on Terra, with
a possible view to reestablishing the Star League. Despite a strong bloc
protesting that the Clans did not have the manpower to mount such an invasion,
they lost a key vote (helped by the arrival of ComStar exploration ships in
Clan space and the news that the Houses were on the verge of rediscovering lost
Star League technology via the Helm Memory Core, eradicating the Clan’s
technological advantage).

In 3049 Clans Wolf, Jade Falcon, Ghost Bear and Smoke
Jaguar invaded first the Periphery and then the Free Rasalhague Republic,
conquering it in the first wave of the assault, as well as mounting flanking
attacks into the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine.

The resulting Clan Invasion, known as Operation Revival, was
a brutal, fast-moving conflict. ComStar allied with the invaders (respecting
their desire to restore the Star League) and shut down communications between
the targeted worlds and the Great Houses, throwing the situation into chaos and
confusion. The Periphery worlds were quickly overrun, but many called in mercenary
units to defend them. Founded during the Succession Wars, the mercenary
companies consisted of only a few ‘mechs each, but working in conjunction with
one another they were able to help slow the invasion (if only slightly), gained
battle experience facing the Clans’ superior ‘mechs (most notably their highly
adaptable OmniMechs) and also learned of the Clans’ rigid concepts of honour,
chivalry and ritual combat. Far worse, from the Clans’ point of view, these
mercenary companies refused to surrender and switched to guerrilla fighting,
continuing to pin down Clan resources even after the civilian population had
surrendered in defiance of honour. This rapidly began to eat away at the Clans’
limited man and ‘mech power, as they had to redeploy units marked for the front
line to police and guard duty on seized worlds.

The first wave of the invasion ended in early 3050 with 35
worlds under Clan control. The Federated Commonwealth and Draconis Combine made
an alliance of convenience and redeployed their forces usually held in reserve
to fight one another to the warzone. Although they were unable to retake
territory, they firmed up the lines and strategically withdrew from tactically
unsound positions. Although the Clans seized another 27 worlds, they found
themselves increasingly bogged down in tedious ground fighting. This allowed
Clan Wolf, which had only reluctantly taken part in the invasion, to gain the
political ascendancy in the campaign. During the third and fourth waves Clan
Wolf, helped by superior intelligence on Inner Sphere politics and culture,
seized a dizzying number of worlds whilst their supposed allies, the Jade
Falcons and Smoke Jaguars, suffered a series of military defeats.

Events culminated in a ship of the supposedly conquered Free
Rasalhague Republic suddenly ramming the Clan invasion flagship, killing the
ilKhan, the supreme leader of the invading forces. Honour forced the Clans to
suspend the invasion to return to their homeworlds and undertake a new rite to
appoint a new ilKhan. This bought the Houses a year to prepare for their
return.

Clan Wolf assumed the seat of ilKhan and prosecuted the
invasion with a renewed zeal, bringing in three additional Clans to support the
invasion. The resumed invasion was a mixed affair, with the Wolves seizing a
wide swathe of Federated Commonwealth territory and Clans Smoke Jaguar and Nova
Cat launching a daring and devastating invasion aimed at the very heart of the
Draconis Combine itself. The Combine formally allied with the Commonwealth and
halted the Clan invasion at the Battle of Luthien. The two Clans suffered
massive losses and had to pull back in disarray.

With the fighting ongoing, ComStar and the Clans held
additional talks, during which it became clear that the Clan invasion was aimed
at Terra itself, which ComStar currently held. Abruptly realising they were
helping the invaders to undermine their own power, ComStar switched sides and
re-opened communication channels and provided intelligence to the Houses. They
also challenged the Clans to ritual combat, a massive battle between their
forces and those of ComStar on the planet Tukayyid.

The Battle of Tukayyid in
May 3052 was possibly the largest and bloodiest war since the First Succession
War and saw millions killed. At the end of the fighting the Clans had failed to
achieve their objectives and were forced to withdraw, whilst the Com Guards had
lost almost half their entire military in the engagement.

As a result of the conflict, a fifteen-year truce was
agreed, to the Clans’ fury as it meant losing momentum and also their
technological advantage: during those fifteen years ComTech and the Great
Houses made good on much of the technological difference between their
factions. Even more infuriating, it allowed the Inner Sphere to re-unify in
3058 with the declaration of the Second Star League, although this was more of
an ambition than a reality. Still, it allowed an expeditionary force to be
launched to the Clan homeworlds in the Kerensky Cluster, located some 1,000
light-years from Sol. A further ritualistic combat in 3061 resulted in the
Clans agreeing to abandon the invasion, although those worlds they had seized
would be retained. The Second Star League’s collapse in 3068 led to the Clans
revoking their agreement in 3071, declaring it null and void, but an internal
conflict rooted in growing xenophobic horror that the Sphere was “corrupting”
the Clans prevented the invasion from resuming. Instead, the Clans already in
the Inner Sphere were cut off from their homeworlds and effectively abandoned,
whilst the Cluster became embroiled in the Wars of Reaving.

ComTech’s treachery during the war was exposed and a
splinter group, the Word of Blake, seized Terra and overthrew ComTech’s rule
there in 3058; by 3081 the group had been overthrown and the Republic of the
Sphere declared instead.

The aftermath of the Clan invasion saw a tremendous period
of instability; despite their attempts otherwise, the Clans-in-Exile became
gradually embroiled in the politics of the Great Houses and other factions, and
a complex series of minor wars unfolded. In 3132 the HPG Grid, which
underpinned the hyperpulse communications network, collapsed and cut off all
FTL communications galaxy-wide. Whilst various forces attempted to repair the
grid, the Houses had to switch to using jumpship couriers to remain in contact.
With immeasurable damage done to the galactic economy, this resulted in the
onset of a new “Dark Age”.

The Dark Age is the setting for the chronologically-latest
events in the BattleTech universe,
with the “current” (or most recent) year in the setting being 3145. However,
more recent BattleTech products have
focused on earlier time periods, due to a mixed fan reception to both the Clan
Invasion and the Dark Age time periods.

A map of the BattleTech universe in 3067, after the Clan Invasion but before the Dark Age. Clan homeworlds not shown.

Setting

BattleTech takes
place across a relatively small area of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the action
almost entirely constrained to an area within 1,000 light-years of Earth. The
primary or “classic” setting is the Inner
Sphere, a region centred on Terra, in the year 3025 AD at the close of the
Third Succession War. At this time the Inner Sphere is dominated by six
factions: the Draconis Combine ruled
by House Kurita; the Federated Suns ruled by House Davion; the Capellan Confederation ruled by House Liao; the Free World
League ruled by House Marik; and
the Lyran Commonwealth ruled by
House Steiner. At the very heart of the Sphere is Terra, Old Earth, which is controlled by ComTech, the corporation/nation which controls all interstellar
communications and banking.

Surrounding the Inner Sphere is the Periphery, a hinterland region consisting of smaller powers
(although some are notable, still consisting of dozens of planets), independent
worlds and dominated by mercenary companies. The Periphery is a frontier region
where the law rarely extends beyond the reach of a laser cannon.

The “classic” BattleTech
setting allows for massed combat between large armies of ‘mechs and
interstellar warships, but more typically the focus is on skirmishes between
small formations of ‘mechs (typically four), known as Lances. The idea is that a sort-of peace exists between the major
powers, but lots of smaller scale conflicts and border skirmishes are
occurring, allowing for a great deal of combat against a reasonably stable
backdrop.

The second major era of BattleTech
is the Clan Invasion period of
3049-61, which introduces the seventeen Clans
as a series of new factions. The Clan Invasion saw the balance of power between
the Houses upset in a dozen years or so of war, but this eventually ended in a
new balance of power being established between the Houses and the Clans who
took part in the invasion, who were ultimately exiled from their homeworlds
after being “corrupted” by the dishonourable “Sphereoids.” This period saw the
introduction of new technology, such as OmniMechs
(‘mechs with easily-swappable hardware pods rather than the more intricate
hardpoints of the older kind). This period is controversial with fans, some of
whom felt it upset the old balance of power (which allowed for a more
interesting focus on small-scale conflict) and was a big event for the sake of
it. Other fans welcomed the shake-up to the status quo. The event also allowed
FASA to retire some of the ‘mech designs they’d been using under legally
dubious circumstances in favour of new, custom designs.

The third major era is The
Dark Ages, beginning in 3132 with the collapse of interstellar
communications and the outbreak of a complex series of small and medium-sized
wars involving mixed alliances of House and Clan forces. This period seems to
have met a lukewarm response from fans, and there seem to be no plans to
advance the timeline beyond it at present.

The 100-ton AS-7 Atlas (Assault-class) is arguably the best-known modern BattleMech. Entering service in 2755, the Atlas typically wields a Type-20 Autocannon, a Type-20 long-range missile battery, a Type-6 short-range missile battery and four medium laser cannons, making it a formidable machine at both long and short ranges.

BattleMechs

At heart of all iterations of BattleTech are the BattleMechs themselves. These towering bipedal war machines combined elements of main battle tanks, aircraft carriers and powered suits in a single military unit. BattleMechs tend to be slow-moving, but can unleash tremendous amounts of firepower. They can also capture and hold territory and are extraordinarily rugged: the Superheavy class of 'mech can withstand everything but a direct hit from a nuclear weapon, and due to the importance of territory and resources, the use of such weapons is extraordinarily rare.

BattleMechs are divided into the following classes:

Light
Light 'mechs act as scouts, artillery spotters, fast-moving interceptors (especially when fitted with jump jets) and reconnaissance units. They can't take a lot of punishment, but their high speed makes them extremely difficult to hit. They can only fit one or two armaments but the stories of a lowly Locust firing the last blast to finish off a heavily-crippled Atlas are legion. The Locust, Commando, Spider, Jenner, Panther and Firestarter are all Light-class 'mechs.

Medium
The most commonly-encountered 'mechs, Mediums are versatile workhorses. They can fulfil many of the roles of the Light 'mech but their much greater weapons payload and armour means they can hang in a firefight even with heavier 'mechs for a while. The Cicada, Blackjack, Vindicator, Centurion, Griffin, Shadow Hawk and Wolverine are all Medium-class 'mechs.

Heavy
The heavy tanks of the battlefield, Heavy 'mechs are missile platforms, heavy cannon machines or close-up brawlers. They can withstand tremendous amounts of damage whilst dishing it out themselves. They tend to be slow, but a few specially-adjusted models are capable of surprising turns of speed. The Dragon, Quickdraw, Catapult, Jaegarmech, Thunderbolt, Grasshopper, Black Knight and Orion are all Heavy-class 'mechs.

Assault
Assault 'mechs are relatively rarely seen, and spark terror into the hearts of their enemies. A single Assault can wipe out several lances of Lights without too much issue, and can hold of several Mediums at once. Assault 'mechs can unleash a terrifying amount of firepower, withstand ridiculous amounts of enemy fire and obliterate everything in their path. On the negative size, they are slow, ungainly, tend to attract the fire of absolutely everything on the battlefield, are mind-bogglingly expensive and very rare to find on the open market. The Awesome, Victor, Zeus, Battlemaster, Stalker Highlander, Banshee, Atlas and King Crab are all Assault-class 'mechs.

Superheavy
The Superheavy class of 'mech is an extremely rare class. 'Mechs of this type weigh in at over 100 tons and usually require specialist equipment to function correctly: some have two or three pilots instead of one and some are "tripods", with a third leg to help with stability. Their firepower and armour is staggering, but their speed is ponderous and the expense of building them ruinous; most commanders would prefer to have two Heavies or three Mediums instead. Still, they are a formidable sight on the battlefield. The Stone Rhino, Omega, Ares and Poseidon are Superheavy-class 'mechs.

An Atlas firing four laser cannons.

BattleMechs utilise the following armaments:

Lasers
Divided into Small, Medium and Large categories, lasers are useful as they do not use ammo (and thus don't require a separate ammo container), do heat damage to the enemy and can operate at a variety of ranges. Their weaknesses are that they are not the best at shooting through armour and generate immense amounts of heat whilst firing (to the detriment of the firing 'mech).

Plasma
Plasma cannons do exceptional damage at both long and close ranges, and are a favourite of snipers. However, they generate far more heat than lasers and enemy 'mechs will usually focus fire on plasma-wielding units to wipe them out as fast as possible.

Missiles
'Mechs have a variety of missiles which can be fired at both long and short ranges. "Missile boats" are a common 'mech variant, which strip out as much armour as possible and use Light 'mechs as spotters. Once the enemy are located, the missile boat fires a truly staggering amount of missiles (up to 50 in a single volley) to try and destroy enemy forces before they close to short-range combat.

Autocannons
Powerful weapons which chew up armour and internal systems with aplomb, Autocannons are a favoured weapon of many MechWarriors. A Type-20 AC can punch through the armour of even the strongest Assault 'mechs if wielded by a skilled pilot.

Gauss Guns
An electromagnetically-charged weapon, the secret of Gauss Gun mass production was lost some time ago, making this a very rare but utterly formidable weapon if encountered on the battlefield.

BattleMechs also rely on several key pieces of equipment to keep functioning. Their actuators allow them to keep walking, moving and deploying weapons: crippling these slows down the 'mech or blows off their limbs altogether. Their heat sinks manage heat disposal and waste. Having insufficient heat sinks causes the 'mech to shut down, fry the pilot or, in rare cases, explode if it tries to fire too many weapons. Armour is relatively self-explanatory, but some MechWarriors have a cavalier approach to personal safety and strip off armour plating to fit on more guns, which results in the occasional sight of a formidably weaponised Assault 'mech strolling onto the field only for the pilot to be one-shotted by a Jenner. Finally, jump jets are a handy and oft-overlooked bit of kits which allows the 'mech to make tactical jumps from one position on the battlefield to another, flying over obstacles. Some pilots throw out the jets to get more guns and armour, but jump jets are a versatile advantage, allowing a 'mech to take cover from enemy fire in a hurry or, under extreme circumstances, launching a kamikaze strike from above on an unsuspecting enemy unit.

The original release of the game under the "BattleDroids" name, which had to be changed after Lucasfilm claimed to own the copyright on the word "droid."

Conception and
Development

BattleTech’s
beginnings date back to the 1984 Hobby Industry Trade Show in Anaheim,
California. Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III had founded FASA a couple of
years earlier to publish roleplaying games and had found great success with modules
and materials for Marc Miller’s seminal space opera RPG Traveller, as well as their first major licence, Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game, and Behind Enemy Lines, a
niche-but-acclaimed RPG set during World War II.

Whilst walking the floor, Weisman found an importer who had
acquired a number of model kits for “mecha,” giant walking war machines found
in numerous Japanese animated programmes. The bulk of the models were from the
Japanese show Super Dimension Fortress
Macross. Weisman placed a bulk order and created a fictional backdrop for a
game explaining where these machines came from. Drawing on the Fall of Rome and
the Mongol Invasion, he developed a space opera setting in the 31st
Century depicting two distinct eras: an earlier period with the various powers
fighting one another for supremacy in the aftermath of the collapse of a vast
empire known as the Star League and, later on, an era where the descendants of
a massive fleet which left the Star League before its fall returned and invaded
established space, the so-called “Clan Invasion” (still a controversial story
decision among hardened fans).

A line of novels began with Decision at Thunder Rift by William H. Keith, Jr. (1986). 64 books
have followed in the core BattleTech line,
establishing the career of Michael Stackpole (who went on to write some of the
most popular Star Wars novels of all
time) and several other writers such as Robert Thurston and Loren L. Coleman.
Victor Milan, best-known for his contributions to the Wild Cards shared superhero universe, also wrote numerous books in
the series.

31 more books followed in a separate line, BattleTech: The Dark Ages which advanced
the timeline to the 32nd Century. In addition, German publishers
have released an additional twenty novels exclusively for the German-language
market. Recently, new novels have appeared (under the original BattleTech title) acting as prequels to
the entire saga. The BattleTech
novels have won a surprising degree of acclaim for the focus on massive ‘mech
combat, memorable characters and the political situation. With its interesting
take on interstellar feudalism, the BattleTech
universe has drawn comparisons with both the Dune saga and fantasy sagas such as Game of Thrones: more than one commentator has called BattleTech “Game of Thrones in space” (with ‘mech lances replacing knights and
armies), complete with its Great Houses, complex web of political alliances and
internal warfare whilst a greater threat is gathering offstage.

BattleTech has
also been blighted by legal issues. It had to change its original name (BattleDroids) after Lucasfilm
threatened to sue them (slightly nonsensically) and it then ran into a major
problem when many of the original ‘mech designs used in the first wave of
products were also purchased for use by Harmony Gold for their television
series Robotech (which directly used
Super Dimension Fortress Macross as
one of its constituent TV series). FASA had to sub-let a licence from Harmony
Gold to keep using their designs, which then ran into another problem when it
turned out that Harmony Gold’s licence was itself dubious. In 1994 FASA retired
these ‘mechs, dubbing them “the Unseen,” to focus on newer, Clan and post-Clan
designs, to the annoyance of fans who were long-standing fans of those designs.
More recently, many of the “unseen” designs have been slightly or completely
redesigned to eliminate these copyright issues.

The success of BattleTech
was buoyed by the video game adaptations, particularly the much-praised MechWarrior series which ran to six games
and three expansions, putting the player in the role of a ‘mech pilot fighting
battles in real-time 3D. The series sold several million copies and was
critically acclaimed. This series was accompanied by the MechCommander companion series (two games and an expansion) which
is a real-time strategy series allowing players to control entire lances of
BattleMechs in combat. FASA set up its own video game company to develop these
games, which was subsequently bought by Microsoft.

In 2001 FASA effectively went bust (although it was
resurrected a few years later) and sold the BattleTech and MechWarrior
licences to WizKids. WizKids were subsequently bought out by Topps in 2003. BattleTech and MechWarrior material continued to be produced under the WizKids
name until Topps eliminated the subsidiary in 2007. Topps then licenced out the
properties to other companies. Catalyst Game Studios took over development of
the BattleTech miniatures and
roleplaying games, whilst Piranha Studios took over the video game licence.
Piranha began development of MechWarrior
5 but, needing more funds, switched to developing MechWarrior Online instead, which focused on multiplayer combat.
Released in 2013 and somewhat controversial among fans (particularly for the
monetisation of new ‘mech designs), the game nevertheless attracted a
significant fanbase. Piranha resurrected their MechWarrior 5 plans with the game now slated for a late 2018
release.

Meanwhile, the franchise’s original co-creator, Jordan
Weisman, had gone on to other projects. He had created the extremely popular
roleplaying and wargame properties Earthdawn,
Shadowrun and Crimson Skies and in the early 2010s set up his own video game
studio, Harebrained Schemes. After developing three highly successful Shadowrun RPGs, he licensed BattleTech and developed the first-ever
turn-based video wargame in the series, entitled simply BattleTech. The game was released in April 2018 to, mostly,
critical acclaim.

In 2018 BattleTech,
at first glance one of the most 1980s of SF franchises, is undergoing an
unexpected renaissance. The first of the two video games due this year has been
released to some acclaim, and a new edition of the wargame is on the way to see
if the franchise can tap into the current vogue for board and miniatures games.
Originally a very niche board game, it expanded thanks to some very well-written
novels (they massively lucked out getting people like Michael Stackpole and the
late, great Victor Milan on board) and some exceptionally good video games which
massively expanded the fanbase. The franchise has suffered from “lore fatigue”,
where the designers made some story and background choices that alienated and
splintered the fanbase, but recent entries seem keen to hearken back to the
original setting of the game, before such controversies, and re-invoke the wild
west and fun frontier feeling of the early game. It will be interesting to see
how the franchise develops in the years to come.

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